Topic Title

I have been looking at getting a PDF markup software and found Bluebeam to be very appealling. We have downloaded the demo and played around with it. It appears to be easy to use. My question is has any used this software? I would appreciate comments. I also didn't know if people have had luck with another PDF markup software.

We trying to get a PDF markup software for marking up engineers drawings and shop drawings for quicker correspondence.

Thanks to all that can help.

Hi Arthur,
We have been using Bluebeam for almost a year now. Very easy to use. Works great for shop drawing review as well as reviewing engineers drawings. Take a look at the online demo's that Bluebeam has on their web site. These really give a good overview of the software.

Good luck.
Jeff

We've been using PDF XChange Viewer with good results. The free version does quite a bit. Worth a look for sure before you pay for something. The Pro version price is reasonable. We were even able to create digital "stamps" of our principle's professional stamps to add to PDF documents. Very handy for review stamps for PDF's.

Josh,
Thanks for the information on PDF-XChange Viewer. The free download works really well for what we want to do. My only issue is that there is no where to lock or secure the markups with the free version. I would need to buy the pro version to flatten the marked up pdf. I am a little apprehensive about buying a software from England. Have you had to deal directly with the company? What has been your experience with them?

Art -

I've never bought software from this company but I have been buying desktop publishing and graphics software from a company in England called Serif (www.serif.com) since 1990 and have had no problems at all. The only issue I've run across is that my bank charges me a 1/10% foreign transaction fee (usually less than $1) on the total purchase price.

You might try www.pdfill.com for an Free PDF Tools: Encrypt and Decrypt
tool

Roger,
I use the free version of PDFill for creating pdf files, splitting and merging pdf files, but the tools don't do the drawing markups I want to do. Bluebeam and PDF-XChange Viewer do a much nicer job at drawing markups.

True, but if you wish to Encrypt and Decrypt , then mark up with your favortie Bluebeam and PDF-XChange Viewer, then lock it up with PDFill.

Or what I'd do is use PDF-XChange to create the markup then just use CutePDF or similar to "print" out to a "locked" PDF.

Roger, That is an interresting idea. I never thought of that.

Josh, I thought of that. When you use PDFill or some other means to create a pdf (through printing) it does "flatten" the image so that your markups can't be changed but it makes a slightly larger file than if you flatten the pdf. We used the flatten feature on our trial copy of Bluebeam.

I have been using BlueBeam Standard Edition for about two years now and find it to be a good markup tool. I have used it to do the following

- Markup existing Cad drawing.
- Creating PDF drawings.

For sometime now I have used this product to create 11x17 books which contain a mixture of building photographs, floor plans with associated room charts on a facility wide level of correctional facilities.

Its a nice tool for communicating with the client and architectural firms that works with me in the project.

The program does have some problems, I do a lot of cutting and pasting which depending on the size of the PDF file will slow down and sometime crash, leading to lost of work.

The tech support for the product is top shelve, the best I have worked with in trying to resolve problems in a timely manner.

The tech support for the product is top shelve, the best I have worked with in trying to resolve problems in a timely manner.

I'm sure he ment the best he's worked with other than Datacad

Joshhuggins !!
YOU ARE CORRECT!!

Thank you very much for everyone's imput. I have been using PDF-Xchange View (the free version) for a couple of weeks and like it a lot. It is very easy to use and does everthing I need it to do. The Pro versions has a few little extras that would be handy, like inserting blank pages and inserting pages from other PDF's. The big advantage I find over Bluebeam is the "Stamp" options. PDF-Xchange view allows for stamps to be created from snap shots.
We using the mark-up software to mark-up shop drawings from our contractor on a job. We have a pdf of our shop drawing stamp that is set up with check boxes and text boxes (thanks to PDF-Tools). I fill in the shop drawing stamp with appropriate approval boxes checked and add the date and intials, then create a snap shot of the marked up stamp and insert as a new stamp. Then apply the stamp to the required shop drawings. A stamp works really well because there are some days that I use the same stamp for several shop drawings.